I've been playing in a 4 man team and we have made our way through Adventure 0. During the first few scenarios you get to draw a random card from the box. After 90 minutes of play we were all greatly disappointed to only pull up BASIC cards. We toss 'em pretty quick since if we wanted them we always have the choice to get them at the start of our next game.
This really takes the prize factor out of playing.
We decided during the Black Fang scenario when we go to pick a random card from the box from a type of our own choosing, that we would pull out all the cards with the word "BASIC" on them. This basically gave us something random that we can't pick in the beginning of our game.
I understand this can always be a house rule (and probably will be for us) but I'm curious as if there is strong enough argument that we are "breaking" the game by doing this?
I understand this can always be a house rule (and probably will be for us) but I'm curious as if there is strong enough argument that we are "breaking" the game by doing this?
Maybe. Later there are rewards that actually say "a random, non-basic item" or similar wording. So you are essentially giving yourself a reward that is appropriate for a later adventure during an early adventure. You will probably end up powering your characters up too quickly and make the game easier than it should be.
We toss 'em pretty quick since if we wanted them we always have the choice to get them at the start of our next game.
You might actually be playing with a house rule here as well. You can't just pick new cards, even Basic cards, at the start of your next game. You rebuild after the scenario ends and have to use what your team has available. Only if, among the whole group, there isn't enough of a certain type of card to fill all the decks, can you then go back to the box and draw a Basic card.
Note the second paragraph in particular.
After each scenario, you must rebuild your character deck. Start by combining your discard pile with your hand, your character deck, any cards you buried under your character card, and any cards you displayed; you may then freely trade cards with other players. Your deck must end up meeting the Cards List requirements on your character card, along with any deck adjustments on your role card, if you have one...
If you can’t construct a valid deck from the cards your group has available because you don’t have enough of certain card types, choose the extra cards you need from the box, choosing only cards with the Basic trait.
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When we played through Rise of the Runelords, early on we were able to rebuild our deck significantly from the cards we obtained and pooled at the end of the scenario. But we never went back to the box to rebuild a deck.
There were times when we'd have to banish a card and get have to fill in with something we didn't want because it was in the pool.
The level 0 adventures don't seem to be designed to level your characters at all. They're more there to tweak your decks a bit so that when you start Adventure 1 you're happier with the character deck.
I think I see what you are getting at Hawkmoon. The part I'm seeing now is that say Merisel banished 2 items during the game and was 2 items short I would have pulled 2 from the item box with the "basic" trait. What I'm seeing here is that if Ezren had an extra item, and Lem picked up a bunch and had to get rid of 3, then I MUST pick from those 4 before hitting up the box.
Hmmm...
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I think I see what you are getting at Hawkmoon. The part I'm seeing now is that say Merisel banished 2 items during the game and was 2 items short I would have pulled 2 from the item box with the "basic" trait. What I'm seeing here is that if Ezren had an extra item, and Lem picked up a bunch and had to get rid of 3, then I MUST pick from those 4 before hitting up the box.
Hmmm...
Yes. And actually, what should happen is that after the scenario, you pool all the cards acquired during that scenario and choose in an orderly fashion.
(I saw in your statement that Lem picked up a bunch and had to get rid of 3. But if he managed to pick up 5, he should put all 5 in the pool and let people know those two that he'd like.)
I think I see what you are getting at Hawkmoon. The part I'm seeing now is that say Merisel banished 2 items during the game and was 2 items short I would have pulled 2 from the item box with the "basic" trait. What I'm seeing here is that if Ezren had an extra item, and Lem picked up a bunch and had to get rid of 3, then I MUST pick from those 4 before hitting up the box.
Hmmm...
Yes. And actually, what should happen is that after the scenario, you pool all the cards acquired during that scenario and choose in an orderly fashion.
(I saw in your statement that Lem picked up a bunch and had to get rid of 3. But if he managed to pick up 5, he should put all 5 in the pool and let people know those two that he'd like.)
I don't go quite that far in my groups. The person that acquired it gets to keep it. Often they will have promised it to another player who helped them acquire it. And often someone will say "This is probably better for you." But in general, whoever acquired it has first dibs.
... But in general, whoever acquired it has first dibs.
Same for us here. Point is, we aren't trying to optimize max/min characters but rather to have fun with whatever each of us has found.
So usually each of us gather what he has (deck, discard, buried, displayed...) and what he wins as PERSONAL reward (like when the scenario says each character draws a random item for the box).
Then the player drops in a pool whatever he doesn't want until he is equal or below what he can keep.
Then we add to the pool the group rewards (plunders, loots, etc...).
Then we somehow agree (if not, we take turns) how to fill each player's deck with whatever is in the pool (it may happen that a player exchange something with the pool if he already has enough of a certain type of card, but there is a better one to grad... like a loot or something another player has put in the pool.
When everyone is done with the pool, all leftover pool cards are put back in the box. Then whoever is lacking a certain type of card complete his deck with what's left in the pool, if any, and if not picks a random card frm the deck (basic if the scenario was adventure level <2, or up to AP N-2 otherwise).
Note that when you take a random card, it may happen that for example you get a divine spell even if you are an arcane caster.. which is great thematically (you just get a scroll) and for gameplay (exchange...). You can then exchange betwwen players but at that point you do not get to go back to the box.
For us, most people don't really play overlapping classes (two arcane casters and such) so there's not much of a chance that people will grab stuff others want. The only things that overlap are items (somewhat), blessings and allies. For allies and blessings whoever got them got first dibs.
Most of the time we don't really argue over who gets what. The few times that we do, we just roll for it or something.
In the spirit of the game... 4 shadowy figures arrive out of breath at their rendezvous point and spill out their loot beside the campfire.
"Get yer hands off that crossbow" Harsk says gruffly, "I pried that out of the cold hands of a dead Goblin."
"Might I remind you" Merisel says as she sharpens her dagger, "That had I not called down the blessing of the gods, that Goblin would have sent you to your maker."
Ezren rolls his eyes and mutters his typical disapproval of any sort of god blessing mortal men.
"Besides", adds Merisiel, "You've already got more weapons hanging off your pack, belt, and sash. I doubt you can carry more than you already have."
Harsk simply grunts, "Fine, but don't come crying to me if you don't have the intelligence to use it."
Chief Technical Officer
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...what should happen is that after the scenario, you pool all the cards acquired during that scenario and choose in an orderly fashion.
(I saw in your statement that Lem picked up a bunch and had to get rid of 3. But if he managed to pick up 5, he should put all 5 in the pool and let people know those two that he'd like.)
That's not quite what the rules say:
After each scenario, you must rebuild your character deck. Start by combining your discard pile with your hand, your character deck, any cards you buried under your character card, and any cards you displayed; you may then freely trade cards with other players.
So the cards that you acquired during this scenario (and didn't banish or give away) are not treated any differently than the cards you had before the scenario started—either way, they start in your combined pile, which you may trade from. Which is to say that the "whoever acquired it has first dibs" method is pretty much what the rulebook says.
That said, part of this process is guided by social contract—specifically, *how* you trade is up to you and your group. Since your method is a perfectly valid implementation of trading, it's fine too.
We toss 'em pretty quick since if we wanted them we always have the choice to get them at the start of our next game.You might actually be playing with a house rule here as well. You can't just pick new cards, even Basic cards, at the start of your next game. You rebuild after the scenario ends and have to use what your team has available. Only if, among the whole group, there isn't enough of a certain type of card to fill all the decks, can you then go back to the box and draw a Basic card.
Note the second paragraph in particular.
After each scenario, you must rebuild your character deck. Start by combining your discard pile with your hand, your character deck, any cards you buried under your character card, and any cards you displayed; you may then freely trade cards with other players. Your deck must end up meeting the Cards List requirements on your character card, along with any deck adjustments on your role card, if you have one...
If you can’t construct a valid deck from the cards your group has available because you don’t have enough of certain card types, choose the extra cards you need from the box, choosing only cards with the Basic trait.
Holy crap, my group's been doing this wrong the whole time.
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That's not quite what the rules say:
After each scenario, you must rebuild your character deck. Start by combining your discard pile with your hand, your character deck, any cards you buried under your character card, and any cards you displayed; you may then freely trade cards with other players.So the cards that you acquired during this scenario (and didn't banish or give away) are not treated any differently than the cards you had before the scenario started—either way, they start in your combined pile, which you may trade from. Which is to say that the "whoever acquired it has first dibs" method is pretty much what the rulebook says.
That said, part of this process is guided by social contract—specifically, *how* you trade is up to you and your group. Since your method is a perfectly valid implementation of trading, it's fine too.
Interestingly enough, all the groups I've played (RotR) with played it where we separated the acquired cards when putting our decks back together. (Gathering discards, burieds, draw and hand.) So we read it wrong. If there were items acquired for specific characters like a spell for Ezren or a weapon for Valeros or a crossbow for Harsk, that player would get dibs. Otherwise we'd democratically pick cards. We never really considered the cards acquired in our deck(s) as first dibs. (Although usually we acquired cards we wanted since they were more suited to our class. So we'd tend to pick those first.)